Helen Molesworth: 2024 Betty Jean & Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Helen Molesworth is a writer and a curator based in Los Angeles. She is the host of David Zwirner’s Dialogues podcast and the writer and host of the podcast, Death of an Artist. The recipient of the 2011 Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Curatorial Excellence, in 2021 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2022 she was awarded The Clark Art Writing Prize.

Her major museum exhibitions include: One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art; Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957; Dance/Draw; This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s; Part Object Part Sculpture, and Work Ethic. She has organized monographic exhibitions of Ruth Asawa, Moyra Davey, Noah Davis, Louise Lawler, Steve Locke, Anna Maria Maiolino, Josiah McElheny, Kerry James Marshall, Catherine Opie, Amy Sillman, and Luc Tuymans. She is the author of numerous catalogue essays, and her writing has appeared inArtforum, Art Journal, Documents, and October.

The Thiebaud Endowed Lecture is organized by the Department of Art and Art History and co-sponsored by the Manetti Shrem Museum.

The Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Lecture in the Theory, Practice and Criticism of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture complements the Visiting Artist Lecture Series and The California Studio, both core components of the Art Studio MFA Program. Wayne Thiebaud’s legacy continues to create art and inspire others after his passing in December 2021. After more than 40 years of teaching and service at UC Davis, he and his influence will be felt by many future generations, thanks to a $500,000 endowment from the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation.